Recent Executive Moves in Banking & Financial Services – MENA

Contact RRA consultant | Kanu Rajguru

Appointments News

• AL BARAKA BANK - EGYPT has hired Hesham Ghoneim as Chief Financial Officer. He joins from Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait in Egypt where he was also CFO for over a year. He previously spent 7 years with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank in various roles including Board positions. Before this he was at Barclays in Egypt for 4 years and Citi in Egypt and Turkey for almost 7 years having started his career with Commercial International Bank.
  
  
• ALKHABEER CAPITAL specialising in Shari’a-compliant investments and financial services, has appointed Ammar Ahmed Saleh Shata as Chairman of the Board. The board also appointed Musaad Mohammad Saad Aldrees as Vice Chairman. Shata started his career in the financial services sector in 1990, during which he has held several leadership positions with the Saudi National Bank and the Islamic Development Bank. Shata established Alkhabeer Capital and served as the company’s Executive Director from 2008 until the end of 2021.
  
  
• AL MASRAF - ARAB BANK FOR INVESTMENT AND FOREIGN TRADE has appointed Graham FitzGerald as Chief Executive Officer. Graham joins from HSBC after 18 years spanning 12 roles across 6 markets with the bank. Latterly he was President & CEO for the Philippines branch which he held for 3.5 years. Before this he spent 2 years as CEO of HSBC Brunei. Prior to this he spent almost 4 years in Dubai as Regional Head of Corporate having initially been Regional COO, Commercial Banking MENA. Before HSBC he was a Sales Manager at Northrop Grumman having been in the Royal Navy for 7 years where he started his career.
  
  
• CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT the global alternative investing firm, has appointed Rabih Sfeir as a Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Capital Formation for the Middle East. Sfeir, based in Dubai, brings nearly 15 years’ experience in capital fundraising and corporate development across real estate strategies. He most recently served as Head of Capital Formation for Real Estate at DigitalBridge, where he managed and grew the firm’s relationships with limited partners in the Middle East. He previously held senior financial and managerial positions at multinational groups, including Kingdom Hotel Investments and LCH Holding.
  
  
• CRÉDIT AGRICOLE CIB – SAUDI ARABIA has hired Anji Aljaroudi as Managing Director - Head of FIs, NBFIs & Public Institutions. Anji was previously with The Saudi Investment Bank as Head of Financial Institutions for 4 years. Before this she spent over 11.5 years with Banque Saudi Fransi latterly as Head of Department, Financial and Non-Banking Financial Institutions for over 4 years having held various FI, FX Dealer and Credit Analyst roles earlier.
  
  
• DOHA BANK said that Raghavan Seetharaman, its veteran Chief Executive Officer has resigned, ending his 15-year career at the lender. Seetharaman was appointed in 2007. Before joining Doha Bank, he was an Assistant General Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Doha Bank is one of Qatar’s larger lenders with a market capitalization of $2.2 billion.
  
  
• HABIB BANK AG ZURICH in Dubai has hired Tim Denton as Head of Wealth Structuring for its Global Wealth Management (GWM) team and will focus on building its estate, trust, succession planning and insurance solutions for the bank’s UHNW clients. Prior to joining Habib Bank AG Zurich in Dubai, Tim held multiple senior positions in Citi, Barclays, and Emirates NBD and has also been Chair of STEP Arabia. Overall, Tim has over 25 years’ experience in this space across the EMEA region.
  
  
• HBL has appointed Danial Hashmi as Head of Wealth Management in the UAE. Hashmi joined the bank in July last year and was officially appointed as Head of Wealth Management in February 2022. Before joining HBL, Hashmi had served in senior positions in several regional and multinational banks such as Emirates NBD, Barclays, Standard Chartered and HSBC during his 25-year career. He graduated from the University of Southern Colorado with a degree in finance.
  
  
• HSBC has promoted Khalid Alkadi to Managing Director, International Subsidiary Banking, MENAT. He was previously a Senior Manager, International Markets for 4.5 years. Prior to this he was Head of Multinational Banking for HSBC in Oman for over 3 years. Before this Khalid was a member of a start-up team which launched HSBC’s first public Islamic Insurance Company (SABB Takaful) based in Riyadh which IPO’d on the Tadawul in 2007.
  
  
• J.P. MORGAN PRIVATE BANK has appointed Shawn Mofidi as Managing Director - MENAT, based in Geneva. Mofidi previously spent 20 years at Citi Private Bank in New York and Geneva, during which he served as a Relationship Manager and held leadership positions, including developing the private bank’s ultra-high net worth (UHNW) initiatives across MENA. Prior to that, he served as the Head of Middle East – Geneva for an international bank and a Managing Partner of a Geneva based multi-family office.
  
  
• MASHREQ BANK has appointed Alexander Raiff as its new Group Head of Technology, Transformation and Information. A seasoned technology professional, Raiff has over 30 years of experience; noteworthy of which is his role as Chief Information Officer in Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank from 2012 to 2020. More recently, he has been an Advisor & Angel Investor for Digital Banking, FinTech/RegTech & Crypto Asset Platforms. Raiff was also associated with Daimler Financial Services and Mercedes Benz from 2003 to 2012 as CIO across their offices in Europe, China and Japan.
  
  
• MASHREQ BANK also has appointed Vibhor Mundhada as the Chief Executive Officer of NEOPAY, as it completed the transition of its existing payments business into a new, wholly owned subsidiary, IDFAA Payment Services LLC. This new brand, under a standalone entity, will consolidate all existing payment systems, which currently processes $22bn of annual volume across the retail, government, hospitality, and e-commerce sectors, into a single platform.
  
  
• MUBADALA INVESTMENT CO. has hired Michael Cleanis. He joins from UBS where he was Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for MENA having spent 12 years with the firm in Dubai. He has been mainly covering the region’s sovereign wealth funds and advised on several major deals including the merger to create First Abu Dhabi Bank. Before UBS he was a Vice President at Invest AD - Abu Dhabi Investment Company having spent time at Merrill Lynch in London and Dubai and Deutsche Bank in Brussels and London covering EMEA industrials investment banking.
  
  
• MIRABAUD MIDDLE EAST LTD., the wealth manager has hired Samir Atitallah as Chief Executive Officer. Based in Dubai, Samir will report directly to Nicolas Mirabaud, Managing Partner of Mirabaud SCA and Chairman of the Board of Mirabaud (Middle East) Ltd. Most recently, Samir was a member of the executive committee of Piaget as the Chief of Staff to the CEO after working more than three years in the organisation & strategy department at Pictet Group. He joined the Mirabaud Group in February 2022 and will be moving to Dubai as of April. Samir has gained extensive experience in private banking and within the luxury goods industry. A Swiss national, he has graduated from l’Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.


• NUVEEN, the asset management arm of investment firm TIAA, has hired Wael Bayazid as a Consultant to help expand its institutional business in the Middle East. Prior to joining Nuveen, Bayazid worked at The Carlyle Group, where he was a Managing Director and Partner. Based in Washington DC and London, he was instrumental in developing the Carlyle Group’s brand in the Middle East and Europe. ‘Wael will consult Nuveen’s global client services team as they expand Nuveen’s footprint in the region, developing strategies to service both existing and new clients, including the establishment of a long-term presence in the Middle East,’ the group announced. Bayazid has over 25 years of experience in client servicing, business development, and fundraising.


• PICTET has promoted Yves Bruggisser to Head of Middle East and Africa. He was previously Head of Pictet Wealth Management (PWM) Middle East (ex-Saudi Arabia) & North Africa in Geneva and will take over from Boris Collardi who is leaving the private bank after three years. He will assume responsibility for all wealth management activities in the Middle East and Africa from Geneva, Zurich and Dubai. In this role, he will also become a member of PWM's Executive Board. Bruggisser will report to Marc Pictet and continue to operate out of Geneva. The head of PWM Saudi Arabia, Saeb Chehabeddine, and the head of the Middle East and Africa division in Zurich, Wael Hamroush, will henceforth report to Bruggisser. Bruggisser joined Pictet in 1999, where he was a Financial Analyst covering the U.S. consumer discretionary sector. After five years on Pictet's equities research team, he joined PWM's Middle East team as an investment specialist before becoming a Senior Private Banker and Team Leader. In 2020, he was named an equity partner.


• STANDARD CHARTERED BANK in Dubai have expanded the role for Hind Chawki to include Head of ESG, Global Credit Markets West (AME, Europe, Americas) along with her existing position as Head of Financial Markets MENAP. Hind was previously Head of Sales and Financing Solutions, MENA and SEO DIFC branch ICBC Standard Bank in Dubai, particularly focusing on Emerging Markets and targeting opportunities across different markets in Africa and China. Prior to this she has held roles with both Barclays and Deutsche Bank.
  
  

Regional Markets News

• Citi announces agreement to sell consumer bank in Bahrain to Ahli United Bank
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• Brookfield to buy 60% of First Abu Dhabi Bank’s payment arm
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• FAB to open representative office in Iraq to expand MENA operations
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• Abu Dhabi's FAB and ADCB deny merger report
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• Dubai's Mashreq to continue investing in international expansion: CEO
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• French bank Societe Generale receives license upgrade from DIFC in line with its regional growth strategy
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• KIA seeks to up investments; Capital markets targeted
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• Abu Dhabi’s ADQ agrees to $2 billion deal with Egypt
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• Lombard Odier aims to double assets under management in Middle East in next 5 years
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• Standard Chartered expects sharp rise in growth in Middle East and UAE
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• Citigroup expects sharp increase in UAE and MENA business amid economic recovery
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• Global banking CEO’s optimistic of sector growth: Annual report, where 135 bank CEOs were surveyed by KPMG
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• How Wall Street bankers plan to spend their bonuses a little differently this year
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• Egypt's biggest national banks lead $85m investment in new FinTech fund
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• Competitor to collaborator: how are fintechs and neobanks partnering with GCC banks to ride the digital wave? By Asad Ahmed, Managing Director, Financial Services, Alvarez & Marsal
  Read more

Contact

Contact RRA consultant | Kanu Rajguru

Kanu Rajguru
Kanu Rajguru oversees Banking & Financial Services for Middle East & Africa and is a member of the global financial services practice. He has over 25 years executive search and recruitment experience and has completed searches in over 35 countries including for the past 14+ years across the Middle East & Africa.
Mobile: +971 50 845 2830
kanu.rajguru@russellreynolds.com
www.linkedin.com/in/kanurajguru/

Burak Gorbon
Based in our Dubai office, Burak Gorbon is a member of the Middle East leadership team and also heads the firm’s Turkey operations. He advises regional and global clients on their leadership teams and boards. Burak’s focus is on recruiting CEOs, other C-level executives and non-executive directors. He is a trusted advisor to a wide range of  Banks, and other  financial institutions.
Mobile: +971 52 646 5256
Burak.gorbon@russellreynolds.com
www.linkedin.com/in/burakgorbon

Nic Cutts
Nic Cutts is a senior member of the firm’s global Leadership & Succession Practice and Head of Financial Services Advisory Services for Russell Reynolds EMEA. He is a (UK) Chartered Psychologist with over 20 years international consulting experience, having assessed and coached many C-level executives. He has led several large scale M&A and transformation initiatives in the financial services sector, where his consulting services have focused on individual, team and organization-wide initiatives.
Mobile: +971 55 560 9820
Nic.cutts@russellreynolds.com
www.linkedin.com/in/niccutts/